My Retreat

They say "A man's home is his castle". Well, that's true of course, but I consider our home My Refuge, or My Retreat—very specifically in the spring, summer and fall of each year. We live at the end of a cul-de-sac, which gives us a special advantage over living on a straight street with houses right next to ours. We have just shy of an acre lot, which gives us space for the house, a nice lawn, a garden, and a wooded space providing natural screening and privacy from all those around us.

Merriam-Webster says, in part:      Definition of RETREAT

1

a (1) : an act or process of withdrawing especially from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable

2

: a place of privacy or safety : refuge

• The President of the U.S. has Camp David
• A number of my Michigan friends enjoy Florida's warmth in the winter
• Some people have lake cottages in rural locations
• Beaches in the south of France are "it" for some

For us, our home is our special place to feel safe and enjoy the outdoors and all it has to offer. I like our neighbors, but I'm so glad I don't have to view their home, their back yard and whatever they're doing there each day. When the trees, shrubs and ground covers are fully leafed out, we see our back yard and nothing much else. Sitting on our back deck we see...

Looking north from the sliding doors leading from the dining room to our deck.

Now, moving northwest to take in the fire pit, the garden and the raspberry planter.
The garden is coming along, slowly but surely.

A bit more to the west now; are you discovering what's missing?

Now due west, still hidden in the woods.

Finally, the view to the southwest, with tree after tree after tree hiding what we don't care to see. 

Standing on our back deck, you would never know we're just 35 yards or so from our nearest neighbor. Again, not that I don't like my neighbors, but I don't have to look into their back yards, nor they into ours. Its privacy folks, right in a well-developed subdivision in a little suburban town bordering Michigan's second- or third-largest city. Nice, eh? 

Labor Should Have Its Rewards

I received the following in an email from a friend this morning. I'd seen it before and again today I thought about the important truths set forth within it. At first glance, it may seem cruel to some, but I ask you take the time to read and ponder each point. Try your best to put yourself in both the place of the giver and the receiver. Punishing success and rewarding failure is a certain road to disaster.

• You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it. 
• You don't multiply wealth by dividing it. 
• Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn't first take from somebody else. 
• Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. 
• The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don't have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don't get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

~ Dr. Adrian Rogers

Wikipedia says this about Dr. Rogers: This quote appears frequently on the Internet and is often attributed to Dr. Rogers with an incorrect date of 1931. In fact, the quotation is part of a longer sermon delivered by Dr. Rogers in a larger series titled God's Way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom, but it also appears as a passage in Dr. Rogers' 1996 work Ten Secrets for a Successful Family which complains that our young people do not know either the importance or value of honest labor. 

Siwwy Wabbit!

So I got home last night and decided the garden could use some weeding. I changed clothes and walked out to find---much to my dismay---some rascal had been in there having lunch while I was at work!!! Where's the twelve-gauge? Hasenpfeffer anyone?

I can't swear it was a rabbit, there were no obvious breaches in the fence, no burrows that indicated some mole or other critter had popped in, but SOMETHING had been there helping themselves to peas, broccoli, Swiss chard and a bit of lettuce.Too bad I hadn't left croutons, bleu cheese and some Ranch dressing for the thief!

THE VARMINT!!!

Fortunately, the tomato plants, the pepper plants, onions (green and red), and other things were intact and growing nicely, so I suppose I should count my lucky stars. It's all part of the risks and perils of back yard gardening.

Still, sorry you siwwy wabbit...I don't care to share! Go eat a dandelion or something, eh?

Dylan Turns 70

Bob Dylan, the premier folk troubadour of the 60s and beyond, celebrates his 70th birthday today.

Kinda feels like I'm getting old...


About Blowin' In The Wind, "In 1962, Dylan said of the song's background: "I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and they know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars...You people over 21 should know better." All that he prefers to add by way of commentary now is: "The first way to answer these questions in the song is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind."

Give a listen here. We still haven't found the wind, have we.

Blowin' In The Wind

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, ’n’ how many times must the cannonballs fly

Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many years can a mountain exist

Before it’s washed to the sea?

Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?

Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head

Pretending he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Copyright © 1962 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1990 by Special Rider Music

The Way We Were

I received this via email from my sister, Nancy, this morning. No idea who authored it, but it does speak the truth about how we folks in the Over Fifty Crowd used to do things many years ago. Some interesting points are made and it makes me wonder how many of the current tree-hugging, Save the Earth, "Green" crowd would care to go back to doing things this way.

The "New" Green Thing vs 

Them "Olden Days"

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

That's right, they didn't have the green thing in her day.... Back then....

They returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back her day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she's right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts—wind and solar power really did dry the clothes! Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters or cousins, not always brand-new, expensive name-brand clothing from the mall!!!

But that old lady is right; they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the housenot a TV in every room. And the TV had a screen the size of a small pizza, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by going to WORK so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bike to a friend's house or the bus to school, instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service!!!  They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

That older lady is right. They didn't have the green thing back in her day.

U.S. Debt Limit History

The following chart shows the growth of statutory limits on our federal debt (the Debt Ceiling), from 1940 - 2010. That's one whale of a mountain climb over the past 20 years.

Source: U.S. Office of Management and Budget,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
by way of The Big Picture blog

You may have a home mortgage, maybe an auto loan, perhaps a student loan balance, and—God forbid—credit card debt, but an increase in personal household debt like that shown above would bankrupt average Joe Q. Public. Is it going to be any different for our own U.S. of A. down the road?

No matter the amount of finger-pointing and jockeying going on in Washington, that limit will have to be raised again this summer. The real question needing an answer is when will they put ridiculous political rhetoric aside and begin to take the necessary, difficult steps to start turning this ship around? Just like a 1,000-foot ore carrier, a change of course is a very slow, deliberate process. Without tough decisions very soon, decisions that will affect each and every one of us, that change will never happen in time to avoid the iceberg.

The Pack Family

Back in the early 1990s, while researching my family history, my searches connected me with some interesting and unknown (until then) relatives. Carol Pack Urban is one fellow genealogist that helped me immensely in tracing my maternal grandmother's Pack family all the way back to the sixteenth century in England; tons of fantastic information that I treasure. Ms Urban also shared a few old family photos taken in both Kentucky and West Virginia. Shame on me for poor filing and labeling practices, but you'll get the "flavor" I'm trying to share.

Pack family home---down in a hollow. 

A few long, lost relatives taking a break on the front porch. 

I apologize for not being able to better identify either photo. Perhaps during my upcoming planned retirement years I'll be able to become better organized and find out more about these folks. The images do convey the stereotypical "hill folk" we often think of, don't you agree?